A producer's personal quagmire highlights Hartford Stage east coast premiere

November 5, 11:05 PMHartford Arts ExaminerAndrew Beck

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   Will LeBow as Felix Artifex talks to Denise.   T. Charles Erickson photo

 It seems oddly fitting that Hartford Stage should open its current offering, Mistakes Were Made, a relatively recent play by Craig Wright, the same week that saw the death of the legendary John Kenley, founder of the Kenley Players in Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, who popularized summer playgoing in the hinterlands by producing such epics as Joe Namath in the serious drama Picnic, William Conrad in Fiddler on the Roof, and Jayne Mansfield in Bus Stop.  

As odd as these productions may sound, they filled Kenley's venues throughout the midwest and fulfilled the theatergoing needs of thousands over 40 years.  At the same time, Kenley thought nothing of altering a play or a show to accommodate a star's wishes, strengths or weaknesses or to fulfill an audience's expectations.  According to Kenley's New York Times obituary, Kenley even added the song, What I Did For Love, from the musical A Chorus Line to a production of She Loves Me at one of his theatres to the delight of audiences many of whom were none the wiser (until the restraining order came from Chorus Line's creator Michael Bennett, that is).

Mistakes Were Made's main character, Felix Artifex, is cut from the same mold as the late Mr. Kenley.  Artifex, as played by the marvelous Will LeBow as a rapid-talking dinosaur unaware that his reliance on cajoling and flattery no longer work in today's world of superagents and teen posses.  Felix is indeed an artifact, an old-school producer who has glommed onto a major Hollywood star who has now set his sights on conquering Broadway.  The vehicle that Felix proposes is a major epic set during the days of the French Revolution called--if you can keep this straight--Mistakes Were Made.Felix Artifex, the main and virtually only character in Wright's play, is cut from a somewhat similar mold.  As played by the remarkable Will LeBow, he is indeed a fossilizing dinosaur, the remnant of an era when theatrical producers were able to put  together packages for demanding stars and were able to influence writers to incorporate changes to accommodate the star or the audience.  According to the New York Times obituary, Kenley himself frequently indulged his stars and his audience, once even incorporating "What I Did For Love" from A Chorus Line into a production of She Loves Me.  (Michael Bennett, the creator of A Chorus Line, quickly put a stop to that.)

The play takes Artifex through an afternoon and evening juggling phone calls, assisted by his virtually unseen secretary, Esther, as he tries to assemble a production of a new play called, yes, Mistakes Were Made, depicting life in the Court of Louis XIV.  But for Felix, this is not going to be an easy task: The film star, however, isn't interested in playing Louis XVI but instead wants to play "the kid," which as the playwright has written him, is merely a negilible, walk-on role.  As a result, Felix rather ludicrously tries to convince the reluctant, principled playwright and his unctious agent that a major rewrite is necessary, all the while placating an anxious costume designer and booking a theater.  Felix's other mechinations include attempting to interest a hot young teenage actress in signing on to play Marie Antoinette--"the real star of the play" -- and suggesting that last-minute rescues from the guillotine and surprise resurrections in England are just what the play needs to succeed.

At the same time, there's a convoy full of sheep arranged by one of Felix's associates that will somehow be sold to help raise capital for the Broadway production of the play.  The sheep are scheduled to be dipped (in order to be protected from parasites), but in intelligence jargon, sheep dipping also refers to disguising CIA officers in order to hide their actual role.  So when an Iraqi tribal chieftan stops the convoy, Felix suddenly has a very real and dangerous international incident on his hands, where there are more than just sheep at stake.  As can be expected, not much of this will end well.

Although Hartford Stage has promoted this production as a comedy or a farce, it is really something of a different animal.  Its humor can be dark and strained, and as the play progresses Felix does more and more soul searching while addressing his pet koi, Denise, who he overfeeds absently while enduring his crisis.  We eventually learn that Felix yearns to reunite with his ex-wife, who blames him for the loss of someone also named Denise, presumably their daughter.  

Wright carefully chooses to dole out the information we need to know about Felix slowly and believably, through the various telephone conversations and harried interruptions from his secretary, Esther, who is seen initially only in silhouette, then as a hand or head sticking through the door.  While we're only privvy to Felix's side of the multitude of conversations, it's pretty easy to keep track what's happening and build a sense of character for those on the other end of the line, who eventually include an American Army officer and a frantic driver from the convoy.

Unfortunately, those expecting a hilarious romp will be disappointed.  Theater and television have provided better and funnier examples of frantic producers and agents. Just think of Jeremy Piven's Ari in Entourage or Al Pacino's Roy Cohn in Angels in America  and their fast and furious mastery of the telephone as lethal weapon.  Mistakes Were Made is much too slow at first in building up interest and much too dry for an audience primed for humor.  In fact, there is more humor on the walls of Walter Spangler's set, a representation of the producer's cluttered office--a series of posters highlighting some of Felix's previous efforts, including such memorable albeit fictional productions as Nell Carter in Blithe Spirit, Vicki Lawrence in Desire Under the Elms, Danny DeVito in Othello, Suzanne Somers in Medea, The Go-Go's in the Three Sisters and a leather-outfitted Dennis Franz in Torch Song Trilogy.  John Kenley would have been so proud!

Munching Tums and swigging milk, pacing his office attached to his headset, LeBow makes a convincing Felix.  Under Jeremy Cohen's direction, he keeps the character from getting too larger than life, maintaining his last shred of dignity as the situation around him barrels out of control.  His performance is the best reason to see this play, made more so since this is essentially a one-man show, which he must keep paced and moving in order to achieve it full impact.  Susan Greenhill is amusing as the frustrated Esther, who creates a character essentially through her voice.  Equally important is Denise, designed and maneuvered in her aquarium by puppeter Stefano Brancato positioned below one of the stage's trap doors.

It's hard to imagine a different interpretation than the one that Cohen and LeBow have developed for Mistakes Were Made, but apparently last year's Academy Award nominee Michael Shannon played quite a younger interpretation of Felix in a much-heralded Chicago production earlier this season.  While at times slow and ponderous, Hartford Stage did not ultimately make a mistake in scheduling this play.  While ostensibly a riff on show bizz chicanery, it becomes in this vision, a take on a man whose brashness and over confidence are no longer a match for the changing sensibilities of today's extremely complicated world. 

For more info:   Mistakes Were Made runs through November 22 at Hartford Stage.  Call (860) 527-5151 or visit www.hartfordstage.org for tickets.